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35iH  CONGRESS,  \  SENATE.  C  REP.  COM. 

2d  Session.      \  I    No.  362. 


BANCROFT  S%7^ 

LIBRARY 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


JANUARY  29,  1859. — Ordered  to  be  printed. 


Mr.  DAVIS  made  the  following 

REPORT. 

[To  accompany  joint  resolution  S.  64.] 
N 

TJie  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  and  the  Militia,  to  whom  was  refer 
red  Senate  resolution  No.  64,  having  had  the  same  under  consideration, 
^\        report : 

o 

dThis  resolution  extends  the  provisions  of  the  5th  section  of  the  act 
of  July  19,  1848,  to  the  3d  regiment  of  Missouri  volunteers,  called 
out  by  the  President  in  1846  for  twelve  months,  and  discharged  be 
fore  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  enlistment. 

The  effect  of  this  resolution  would  be  to  give  three  months'  extra 

•ay  to  this  regiment,  which  was  enrolled  at  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  on  the 

i   14th  of  August,  and  discharged  at  Fort  Leavenworth  on  the  1st  of 

>  October  of  the  same  year,  (1846,)  receiving  their  pay  and  bounty  land 

in  consideration  of  their  services. 

The  section  of  the  act  now  proposed  to  be  amended  granted  three 

£  months'  extra  pay  to  all  the  officers,  &c.,  engaged  in  the  military 

^  service  of  the  United  States  in  the  war  with  Mexico,   provided  it 

^  should  "only  apply  to  those  who  have  been  in  actual  service 'during 

the  war."     It  must  be  obvious  that  Congress,  in  passing  this  act, 

intended  to  provide  only  for  troops  returning  to  their  homes  from  the 

seat  of  war,  worn  down  by  its  fatigues  and  unable  at  once  to  procure 

other  employment.     The  act  itself  only  extended  its  benefits  to  those 

in  the  service  in  the  war,  and  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  that  the  proviso, 

which  is  generally  understood  to  limit  the  section,  should  embrace  a 

greater  number  of  persons  than  the  act  to  which  it  is  appended. 

The  Missouri  volunteers  did  not  enlist  with  any  expectation  (cer 
tainly  without  any  promise)  of  receiving  this  extra  pay,  and  the  law 
was  passed  after  they  had  been  discharged,  and  after  every  contract 
between  them  and  the  government  had  long  since  been  at  an  end. 

At  the  date  of  the  act  it  was  known  that  many  companies  of  vol 
unteers  had  been  received  during  the  Mexican  war  and  discharged 
without  performing  any  active  service — without  being  in  the  war, 
and  for  the  sole  purpose  of  excluding  such  from  the  benefits  of  this 


2  THREE   MONTHS  EXTRA  PAY. 

act  the  proviso  was  adopted.  Nor  does  it  seem  reasonable  or  just 
that  men  who  performed  no  other  service  than  that  stated  above 
should  receive  the  same  extra  allowance  as  those  AV!IO  faced  the 
enemy  in  the  enemy's  country  and  suffered  all  the  dangers  and  priva 
tions  incident  to  battle  field. 

The  committee  report  the  bill  back  to  the  Senate,  with  the  recom 
mendation  that  it  do  not  pass. 


